Flat Rock production isn't your average 'Nutcracker'

New York choreographer Chase Brock's adaptation of “The Nutcracker,” debuting on the Flat Rock (N.C.) Playhouse Mainstage this week, is Brock's loving Christmas gift to his hometown.

By Beth BeasleyFor Halifax Media Group

New York choreographer Chase Brock's adaptation of “The Nutcracker,” debuting on the Flat Rock (N.C.) Playhouse Mainstage this week, is Brock's loving Christmas gift to his hometown.Brock, who got his start at the Playhouse in YouTheatre, has created a “fun, fresh and magical” adaptation of the ballet that opens Wednesday.“ ‘The Nutcracker' is so iconic,” says Brock, who is choreographer for Broadway's “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” “It's something that's in your blood as a dancer.”Numerous dancers and production talent from New York have teamed up with Playhouse staff to stage this new version of the holiday favorite.The most original of all might be the fact that Brock, 29, has set his version of E.T.A. Hoffman's original story “The Nutcracker and The Mouse King” in Hendersonville, N.C. — or at least a thinly fictionalized version of the town.The move is fitting for a hometown boy returning to direct “The Nutcracker” at the request of Vincent Marini, producing artistic director at the Playhouse.“It's very character- and story-driven and very local,” Brock says. “When Vincent asked me, I wanted to do a ‘Nutcracker' that couldn't be done anywhere else — it's not meant to travel.”And though Brock's adaptation is new and modern, it doesn't stray too far in spirit from the tried and true versions.“I want to fulfill the audience's expectation of what a ‘Nutcracker' should feel like,” Brock says. “I'm hoping it will be a delightful, fun, quirky, entertaining gift for this community.”

Brock has worked in theater, modern dance, ballet, opera, television and film, and he got experience in video game production by choreographing the Wii game “Broadway Dance” in 2010.At 16, he was a dancer in the original cast of Susan Stroman's Broadway revival of “The Music Man.”More recently, while choreographing “The Blue Flower” in New York, Brock worked with award-winning costume designer Ann Hould-Ward in a collaboration that was rewarding for both, forging a friendship.When Hould-Ward agreed to work on the Flat Rock production of “The Nutcracker,” Brock was ecstatic.“I've been a fan of hers forever,” Brock says of Hould-Ward, who has won a Tony award for costume design for Disney's “Beauty and the Beast.”“I'm happy to be part of something to make his dreams come true,” Hould-Ward says of designing for Brock's “Nutcracker.”Hould-Ward, while relaxing in a rocking chair outside Lowndes House on the Playhouse campus, talked about how families experiencing creativity expressed live on stage can create a particularly magical shared experience.“This has the same feeling as ‘Beauty (and the Beast),' where the parent and child can join together in an inspired way,” she says.Hould-Ward began designing the show early this year and says a “tremendous amount” of research was done on Flat Rock and the area's arts and crafts to inform the show's designs.“I was captivated by the idea of doing a ‘Nutcracker' based in this community,” says Hould-Ward, who grew up in a small Montana town. “I hope the community here will support this and realize they've had a show made for them.”

“It's a more urban aesthetic,” Brock says of his version, which includes the elaboration of Marie's pet mouse into a hoodie-wearing youth named Snow, played by Gerald Avery, who was in the original cast of “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark.”Brock has taken the story's character of Marie — played by Macy Sullivan, a recent graduate in dance from Juilliard — fast-forwarded her to age 14 or 15, and made her an only child.“It's a very translatable story,” Brock says. “Musically, there are limitations; I knew from the first moment the need to have new arrangements and orchestration.”

As musical director for the production, Brock's husband, Rob Berman, has created numerous new arrangements based on Tchaikovsky's original score.Berman, who recently won the 2012 Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction for “The Kennedy Center Honors” on CBS, has created a score for this “Nutcracker” that has an “Appalachian touch.”Brock describes the music as “symphonic, warm and majestic — a mid-century sound” somewhat akin to Aaron Copland's “Appalachian Spring” ballet score.Eleven musicians will join Berman, who plays on piano, to provide the music for this special mountains-inspired “Nutcracker” score.Sullivan says she has appreciated working with the cast in Flat Rock, calling the experience “refreshing.”“This has been more complicated and more interesting than other ‘Nutcrackers' I've worked on,” she says. “I like that I get to dance in sneakers, to dance like a kid.”

Micki Weiner, one of 10 dancers from New York participating in Brock's adaptation, had performed in various performances of “The Nutcracker” over 20 continuous years, up until two years ago.“It's fun to approach something you know so well,” says Weiner, dance captain and assistant choreographer for “The Nutcracker.”“From the perspective of a dancer, it's like doing a completely new production,” she says.

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